It's easy to miss many innovations in strategy until they appear on the front page of a major business publication. But by then everyone--including all your competitors--is using them. As a CEO or senior executive, your job is to detect these strategies - and implement them - before your competitors. That's where this book comes in. Author George Stalk has often been called a guru of business strategy. In the 1980s, before anyone else saw its importance,...

"Longtime leader in the luxury goods sector and former Chairman of LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton North America reinvents the artand science of brand-building under the rubric of Aesthetic Intelligence. In a world in which people have cheap and easy access to most goods and services, yet crave richer and more meaningful experiences, aesthetics has become a key differentiator for most companies and a critical factor of their success and even their...

Is your company spending too much time on strategy development--with too little to show for it? If you read nothing else on strategy, read these 10 articles. We've combed through hundreds of Harvard Business Review articles and selected the most important ones to help you catalyze your organization's strategy development and execution. HBR's 10 Must Reads on Strategy will inspire you to: Distinguish your company from rivals; Clarify what your company...

During his forty-year career in the worlds of law, sports, business, and politics, Ron Shapiro has worked with a great variety of people. He's found that the secret for getting into the winner's circle is simply disciplined preparation. In Dare to Prepare, successful people such as wine guru Robert Parker, investment legend Bill Miller, pianist Leon Fleisher, Goldman Sachs partner Lisa Fontenelli, broadcaster Bob Costas, firefighter Ann Marie Tierney,...

What if the real key to a more fulfilling career was not to scale up but to work for yourself and become a successful and sustainable company of one? The New York Times bestselling author of Deep Work Cal Newport calls this book a "must-read for any entrepreneur who prioritizes a rich life over riches." Company of One offers a refreshingly original business strategy that's focused on a commitment to being better instead of bigger. Why? Because staying...

Traditional pricing methods involve a trade-off. You want to charge as much as you can in order to maximize Profits, but not so much that there is a negative impact on sales. So when a customer rejects your price, does it mean that the price is too high? According to Tom Nagle, not necessarily. To get customers to pay for value, he maintains, you need to approach your markets proactively, with communications that justify your price in terms of value....

Every business needs a business plan but how do you put one together? Jay, a clothes designer, and Robin, in the forestry business, explain how they wrote their business plans. Objectives: the business plan has to state what the business has been set up to do. Marketing: the plan describes the product, who it's aimed at, how they'll buy it and at what price. Production: the production plan outlines how they'll make their product. Resources: will the...

As an associate of the Gambino family, Ferrante relied on his instincts to pull off some of the biggest heists in US history. By the age of twenty-one, he had netted millions of dollars for his employers. His natural talent for management led Mafia bosses to rely on him. After being arrested and serving an eight-and-a-half-year prison sentence, Ferrante went straight. He realized that the Mob's most valuable business lessons would allow him to survive...

In a business environment of fastmoving markets, global supply chains, and dynamic technologies, executing strategy is becoming increasingly dif cult. How do you aim for a target that is constantly shifting while standing on a platform that is constantly destabilized? Professor Levitt provides the answer: plan in detail only as far out as you can see; keep questioning your assumptions about your markets, resources, and competitors; and revise your...

A successful entrepreneur shares advice for building confidence and staying out of your own way in the world of business. Learn how to suppress worries and negative self-talk in favor of taking creative chances. "You don't need a detailed plan to make your dream a reality. You just need to start before you're ready. As a twenty-five-year-old line cook, Ellen overheard her boss reordering aprons. Sick of wearing the kitchen's cheap and poorly designed...